Fated
by LadyShirahime93
Summary: Sakura went back in time and changed the past. Now back in the present she learns she's a Missing-nin, her only allies the Akatsuki. She knew changing the past would alter some things, but she never expected this. AkatsukiXSakura
1. Chase

Sakura went to the past and changed it. She should have known that messing with things that were fated to happen, would leave dire consequences. But she never dreamed of this. Warning: Spoilers!

_Fated_

XxXx

This story is being completely rewritten. Sorry for the inconvenience. But life, at last, is not fair, and as such, I have been away from Fanfic too long to remember what I was doing with this story because of shit happening.

And so I have rewritten it. (Not so much this chapter tho)

XxXx

If she could run anymore, her body wasn't telling her it could.

Her body felt like it had just taken a Katon jutsu to every nerve ending in her body. Most noticeably her lungs; and she had long since ceased breathing, because it hurt too much. Thank Kami that her earlier years at the Academy had taught her how to hold her breath for long periods of time.

But now her lungs felt they were going to burst if she didn't gulp in more air. If she did that, she would loose her footing, and then the lethal ninjas behind her would strike. She could not let that happen.

She glanced behind her, and though sweat had already mixed with the rain and blurred her eyes, she could see the familiar red starring at her and her surrounding area. She gulped. If that didn't get her to move faster, she didn't know what would.

At that thought, Sakura Haruno propelled her self off another tree branch, and tightened her grip on a scroll she had in her hand. She wanted to drop it and leave it there, but it was her mission to see that it made its destination. Besides, if she left it, how was she supposed to explain to her, oh-so-understanding "client" that she had failed? My Kami, he would kill her.

The jerk would probably enjoy it too.

She propelled herself, ignoring the stabbing pain in her side, and legs, and chest…and entire body; and flew to the next tree with the grace one would expect from a kunoichi. She snorted mentally. She hadn't had grace since Tsunade taught her. Hell, for a while Tsunade wasn't even sure if Sakura was a tom boy or still that love struck girl that she had met.

Her frown increased, and with that, so did her speed. Ah, so if she thought on this subject, she would go faster? Damn, that looked like it was the only option.

How long had it been since she last saw Tsunade? She was sure it had to have been at least a couple of months, if not half a year already. The last time she had saw her was at the Konoha hospital, and they were saving the life of yet another brave shinobi.

Sakura almost sneered at the thought. She was still in denial that she had been so naïve. How anybody of her status could have been so stupid as to believe what she had, was beyond her.

Sakura glanced behind her and saw she was a little bit farther from the red eyed man, than she had been minutes before. This time, she let out the breath that was threatening to collapse her lungs. It felt wonderful to actually have some fresh air in her lungs. Actually, she noted grimly, it felt too good and now she was getting dizzy. Ah great. The red eyed man would kill her if she lost her footing.

_Stupid Uchiha's and their arrogant pride!_

She was losing speed again, and with an angry burst, she thought of Konoha.

After Sakura had been trained by Tsunade, she spent most of her time in the hospital, or tracking Sasuke. She had long since let go of her crush for the Sharingan user. Did she love him? Of course, she would always love him! He was like a brother to her in a sense; one of those older siblings that was "allergic" to his younger siblings (I.e. Naruto and Sakura.)

Sakura began to see Team Seven as a bit of a family. Even though Sasuke was gone, she would always see him as a brother. Sai was the annoying step brother, Naruto was the younger brother that always got on everybody's nerves, Kakashi was the father, and Yamato was the step father that took over the family when Kakashi was away. (Even though they knew he was there under ANBU orders, calling him Touzou was still weird, and so they continued to call him Yamato-sensei)

Sakura felt her heart drop. Thinking of "her boys", as she so opted to call them, left a bad taste in her mouth. She ran faster, if only to get the taste out of her mouth via the rain splashing her face.

It was probably the entire reason that she was here at this moment because Team Seven was the best, and simply that. Sakura was the best medic under Tsunade, not to mention that she had a wicked left hook. Naruto was a Jinchuriki, energetic and skilled at wind based attacks. Kakashi was the Copy nin, and no words could do justice to how completely skilled he was. Yamato was the "clone" (As Naruto so jokingly called him) of the first Hokage. Sai was a ROOT member, (even though the rest of Team Seven pleaded ignorance of this when Danzou was around), they knew he was skilled at killing because of his earlier training. From what she had seen in reports, Sasuke was skilled too, and when he would come back to Konoha, she would see to it that he was placed back on their team, and be the best of the best.

Team Seven would be legendary (not that it wasn't already.)

Sakura sighed inwardly. That was her dream, like it was Naruto's dream to be Hokage. Deep inside of her, she knew that was just wishful thinking. She would like to think that she could make Team Seven come back together again. But even when she had tried, disaster had struck.

And here she was.

Running.

In the cold rain.

From ninja that want her dead.

Yeah, she thought sarcastically, she was definitely on her way to doing just that. As soon as she figured out how to escape these damned people that just _wouldn't listen_!

Sakura knew she shouldn't complain. After all, it was really her fault to begin with. She didn't have to be a kunoichi. No, she stuck herself in this path, even though her parents had told her early on that they didn't mind if she was a kunoichi or not. For a while she wondered if she really did want to be a kunoichi. A civilian life would be nice too.

But she saw that the number of kunoichi was diminishing every year, put two and two together, and decided she would do something to help. After all, with the number of kunoichi dropping every year, it would be harder to kill S-class and missing nin. The kunoichi would make that easier, she remembered reasoning with herself, if she could climb into bed, and kill them while they were… distracted by other things.

She really couldn't complain, if she looked at it that way. Sakura had chosen this path.

_And look where's it's gotten me?_

Not for the first time, did Sakura feel herself become jealous of the shinobi in her village. If she was Shikamaru, she could think of a clever plan to get out of this mess. If she was Naruto, she could attack head on with a quick and witty shout, and quickly heal thanks to Kyuubi. If she was Neji she could see behind her and not have to guess where her enemy was.

_Oh Kami, why couldn't I have been born to a clan?_

Sakura willed herself not to laugh. Laughing would slow her down, and that would be a bad idea.

_Haven't we been here before?_

Sakura smiled though; she had, had this train of thought before. And it always lead to the came conclusion. She was glad she was not born to a clan. The Uchiha's were all massacred. The Hyuuga's were self righteous (thought Hinata could be exempt from that category.) The Inuzuka were all loud, and full of them selves. The Akamachi…she didn't even want to go there. The Abruame scared the crap out of her, and their personality could rival that of a rock. The Nara were a bunch of lazy bastards. She could go on and on about how dysfunctional each clan was.

And yet, she still loved all of them.

Sakura wouldn't live for them, because she would die for them. It killed her inside when she saw the pain and suffering of her friends. When she found out what Naruto had sealed inside of him, she had cried for hours, at how terrible she had been to him. Shikamaru lost his best friend and teacher along with Ino and Choji, (though Shikamaru had taken it harder than the latter two.) Neji and his seal on his forehead. Garra and his demons (And she didn't just mean the one sealed inside of him) Sasuke and his family. Itachi and his. Hinata and her father. Her Shishou and Orochimaru's betrayal.

In a way, Konoha was one big fucked up community (with Suna thrown in there for twist)

The pain in her chest became unbearable again, and she wondered for a second, how much time had past since she started reminiscing.

Right. Ninja's behind you that want to kill you. Distraction would be bad.

Sakura ground her teeth together and crouched low on the tree branch that she had just landed on. She jumped off, using as little chakra as possible, and forced herself forward. She sucked in another breath of air.

My Kami, how long had she been running? It felt like days, but in reality is was probably only a day, maybe a little bit less.

_Don't they ever give up!_

No, they were trained killers, and they wouldn't stop until she did. Sooner or later, they knew she would, and when she did, they would strike. She guessed it would be sooner, rather than later, considering that she was running out of chakra.

_Ah, my bodies not meant to take this much strain!_

She knew grumpily that she was falling into their trap. Run her ragged, wait till she's low on chakra, then attack. She knew that's what they were doing, because that's what _she _would do. The bad part about it was? It was completely and utterly working.

She bit her lip, and braced herself as; a mossy tree branch came into her line of sight. If she landed on that wrong, that would be it. She would die. She clutched the scroll, her hands gripping that plastic that covered it to protect it from the rain.

She landed sliding on it and pushed off before she lost her balance completely.

_That was easier said than done…_

She breathed out again, to calm the burning in her chest. She looked behind her. Itachi jumped on the branch perfectly, and jumped off, landing on the next branch with ease.

_Show off…_

She faced forward again, the rain slamming against her harder. If the rain got any heavier, she mused, it would be like swimming in a never ending lake. She could feel the rain everywhere on her. She even felt it in places she hadn't known existed. Her skin was a light purple from the cold, with her hair clinging to her face and shoulders. Her clothes hung to her skin. The friction from rubbing her thighs together, mixed with the rain, was leaving a rash in between her legs. And by Kami, did it hurt.

_I swear when I'm done with this thing, I'm taking a year long vacation!_

She continued running, and to her horror, she noticed that moss began to cover most of the trees. Moss mixed with water was never a good thing, no matter how skilled you are. She knew that if she wanted to continue going at the same speed she had been going; that she needed to apply chakra to the soles of her feet.

Great, that meant she needed to use more chakra. She had to do it. It was that, or slip all the time, risk getting caught, and also risk smacking her head against the trees.

Yeah, smacking her head on the tree did not sound like a very good idea to her.

She looked behind her at Itachi, he was moving with such grace, that she _knew_ he had chakra on his feet too. She grumbled something intangible that she had learned from Tsunade when Jiraiya had tried to cop a feel on her.

Sakura had no choice but to force chakra into her feet. Anything to stay away from those killers was good enough for her. Even though, a voice in the back of her head (That she told frequently to "stuff it") told her, that she was just prolonging her death.

_I can make it, damn it! That one guy -oh what was him name?- told me if I could reach the border, than I'd be safe. I must be close to the border now!_

She knew that as soon as she reached the border that everything would be okay for now. They would come after her later, yes, but for now she would be safe. She could rest and recuperate, though she doubted whether she would go near water again after this chase in the rain.

_My Kami, how do people in Amegakure deal with this much rain?_

Sakura continued running, pumping her legs, which were screaming in protest. She idly began to wonder how much further until she got to the boarder. She had to be close now, and as soon as she crossed the boarder, she was safe. Nothing could get her.

Her chakra was running dangerously low, and she could feel the fatigue pressing against her eyes. She searched herself. One calf bleeding, one sprained ankle, fatigue, hypothermia, chakra exhaustion, and a broken finger which she set, against the scroll; though for a while she was running blindly, unable to see through the tears. Oh yeah, when she returned, she was smacking somebody.

Hard.

She ground her teeth together, feeling the salty rain seep in through them. She was close to the boarder, and the ninja behind her knew it. Faintly, she could feel their chakra burst. Ah, so they were going to take her now. Well, she would give them a run for her money. If they got her to stop, she just knew, she wouldn't be able to move for a long time. That would leave her free for attack.

There was no way in the seven hells she was going to allow that.

She pumped chakra into her leg and feet, and burst forth, shattering the tree branch she had just been on. Her speed increased, and she could tell, with that, so did her pursuers. She looked behind her at Itachi. He was closing in on her.

She ran faster, clutching the scroll hard, the adrenalin making her forget the searing pain in her finger. She was so close!

In the distant she could see blurred lights marking the town she was suppose to rendezvous at. How could she could see the lights in this much rain, was beyond her. She shrugged it off, and quickly felt Itachi's chakra gaining on her.

_Right, pursuits…worry about lights in rain later when I'm no longer being targeted_.

She could feel her chakra draining, and began to breathe heavily. She began to chant over and over in her head that she was so close to the boarder. Her heart hammered in her ribcage with excitement. She could almost feel the freedom awaiting her.

_Ah, please Kami! Let me make it! Let me get there in time!_

Her head began to clear. She only had less than ten kilometers to go. If she could make it within two kilometers, she would be okay. They would come to her and save her if she raised an alarm. She could feel the chakra infused flare digging into her leg. She could light it, and they would come. Granted, she would have to hold a battle for the few minutes it took for them to get to her.

But she could do it. She had to. There was no, "if" "ands" or "buts" about it. She had to get there. Her friend's lives depended on it. _Her _life depended on it. The future depended on it.

She could feel the weight of this statement on her shoulders. She had been chosen to bring about a better future. And not for the first time did she wonder if the Gods had picked the right person. There were so many other people out there more qualified than she was to change the world.

A utopia was how _he _described it.

Sakura would bring a utopia. No more did she have to watch her friends die, no more would innocent blood be shed. No more.

That was enough to get Sakura running faster.

She looked behind her and saw that Itachi was no further behind her than the last time she looked. Her mind began to scream. If she was running faster than she had a few seconds ago, that meant she was losing momentum.

Again, she was jealous of the shinobi. If she was Naruto, her chakra would not deplete so easily. Hell, Naruto could probably run to Snow Country and back and still fight Orochimaru to his full potential.

_Ugh! Why couldn't I have been a guy! Then again, if I was a guy, I wouldn't be in this mess either. Whoever is up there, either love me or hate, not both damn it! It's confusing!_

8 kilometers left…

She looked behind her and could see Itachi's face now. It was the same cold dark façade she had always seen on his face. His eyes locked firmly on her and her surroundings. She felt a shiver run down her spine.

She turned back around, again chanting in her head that she was so close. She only had a little bit to go, just a little bit. No way would they pass over the boarder with all the skilled shinobi that would attack in her defense.

7 kilometers…

The trees became mossy again, and she swore out loud. This would only hinder her, not help her. If anything, it helped her enemies. She was losing too much chakra, and guessed she only had about 11 percent of it left. It would become deadly if she hit five percent.

Still, Sakura had never been this low before. The lowest she had ever been was 22 percent. And the fact that she hadn't eaten in almost three days, nor slept in that amount of time, wasn't helping her.

_They'd better have ration bars, or I will throttle somebody._

6 kilometers…

Itachi was closing in on her fast. She was losing speed again. She wasn't meant to do this much manual labor. She was a women after all, granted she was also a kunoichi. But this kind of work was meant for shinobi.

Kunoichi were taught to be lady like, which didn't include running in the forest from someone that wanted to kill you, while in the soaking, cold rain, in the middle of winter. No, that was a man's job. They could do this. They could, but Sakura couldn't.

She sped up, if only because Inner Sakura (who had been cheering her on the entire time), told her that she could fit in with anybody if she wanted to.

5 kilometers…

Now she only had three more to go if she wanted to live. She was grateful for the bastard who created water proof flares.

_Run now, think later._

So she continued running, gulping in more air. She was going to cause permanent damage if she continued on like this.

_Those bastards better be lucky that I'm doing this for them. I should throw this scroll in his face when I see him next._

Sakura snorted out loud. She frowned, and continued running.

4 kilometers…

Something began to appear in the distance that mixed in with the light, and with a mental "hurray!" she realized it was buildings. She felt like crying. Never before had she been so happy to see inanimate objects before.

She turned around to see if Itachi noticed them yet, or couldn't see because of his diminishing eye sight.

He was speeding up- How much chakra does he have!- and Sakura sighed. Yep, he could see the buildings. And if he could see the buildings, that means they were really close. Had she been off a kilometer?

For the first time in a long time, she hoped and prayed that she was wrong.

Her pursuers were coming in close.

Too close.

A kunai shot out at her, but passed her and imbedded itself in the tree she was on, instead.

They were getting restless.

She continued running.

3 kilometers…

The wall surrounding the city came into view. She sighed grateful. Her chakra was at 8 percent now. She could feel her body protesting.

_Please not now! Please, I won't ever work you this hard again! Just please expand some energy! Kami, please! _

Forget hitting her client. If she saw his face again, she would kiss it, because at least she was alive!

_Come one…only a few more-_

Her thoughts were cut short as a Katon jutsu exploded the area. She jumped, avoiding the deadly flames and turned around, grabbing a kunai from her weapons pouch and threw them at the source of the jutsu.

She continued running, though that _fucking _voice in the back of her head, told her they had caught up to her, meaning she could no longer out run them. She politely told her voice to go screw itself.

2 kilometers…

She gave a strangled cry of happiness and pleasure. She was safe! Well, as safe as one could get considering she still had people after her to try and kill her. But she was _safe!_

She fingered the flare.

Bad move…

A shuriken shot out and caught her shoulder. She could tell it had caught muscle. It would be sore in the morning; if she survived that long, she added grimly.

The shuriken did its job thought. It distracted her long enough so that her chakra faltered. It just had to be an extra wet, extra mossy branch that she landed on next, too.

She gave a short cry of shock and horror, before her body slammed into the branch, and flipped over, causing her to fall to the ground with and "omf" that knocked the air out of her lungs. Stars burst in front of her eyes, and she could feel tears start to stream down her face.

She could see Itachi land at the side of her vision.

Sakura was right when she predicted that she wouldn't be able to move once she stopped. Her body was no longer following her chain of commands.

_Move you stupid piece of flesh! They'll kill you! Don't you care if you die!_

Her body protested, but she stood up slowly nonetheless. She faced Itachi, his face reading no emotions. Her hands shook from holding the scroll, and her other hand inched closer to the flare.

He stared at her before reaching out quickly and pulling a shuriken from his holster. He threw it, aiming it at her face, and her eyes widened. Her body had ceased all movement! She couldn't dodge!

She felt her body collapse, and she fell to her knees. Someone behind her groaned, having taken the blunt of the shuriken in her place. Itachi moved in closer, grabbed her collar and lifted her to her feet.

_This is it… I'm done…_

The place was instantly surrounded by ANBU and Hunter nins. Itachi clicked his tongue in annoyance. Sakura smirked. He glared at everybody around him. There were easily about twenty or so (minus the one that had taken the shuriken to their shoulder)

"Uchiha Itachi," Someone said, though their voice was muffled by the rain, "You are under arrest by the Konoha ANBU! Resistance is futile, you are completely surrounded. Come with us now, and we will escort you back to Konoha for trail and debate on your punishment, for the following reasons: murder, treason…"

The list went on, but Sakura wasn't listening. She was busy watching Itachi and she could tell he was weighing his options at this point. Why? Of course he wouldn't go _that _easily. Her hand rested on the flare.

"Haruno Sakura," The same voice said, "You are also under arrest by the Konoha ANBU! Resistance is also futile, you are completely surrounded. Come with us now and we will escort you back to Konoha for trail and debate on your punishment for the following reasons: attempted assassination of the Hokage, treason, murder, aiding a wanted criminal, theft, and arson."

Sakura swore loudly.


	2. Poison

I wasn't sure what to do with this, but after some careful consideration, I finally decided to restart this story and finish it.

XxXx

_She was swimming in darkness. A type of darkness that seemed to scare her as well as excite her, as odd as that sounded. She was almost relieved to be in the darkness, because in the darkness there was nothing. No worries, no fighting, no blood, no death._

_But the nothingness also scared her. She wanted something, but her brain told her that was impossible, she would never see that something again; never hold it in her hands; never cherish it; never love it. The darkness was a cruel but welcoming place._

_It was strange, she found that with the nothingness, something could be created. It something had already been created, then that something could not be made into something else, for it was already something. A bird could not be made into a tiger because it was already a bird. But a nothing, was just that, a nothing. Nothing could be made into something, because it wasn't already something._

_She reached out into the darkness, gripping at the nothingness like a life line. A human could not make a nothing into something, and a something into something else. That was left to the Gods to do. But with an fist, she made something into something else. She knew the Gods weren't going to be pleased that she had bypassed the laws of the universe and made her own, but she wanted something that wasn't there._

_So she took one thing and crafted it into something else._

_That something was Time. She reached into the pool of Time, and disrupted the flow of time. Adjusting the flow had been tricky. She had to delicately sort through all the threads of time, and weave a specific thread out of the flow of Time, without unraveling the whole thing. Then even more delicately, she took her own artificial thread and weaved it through time._

_Fate was not pleased, for before time had began, it had worked long and hard to create the fabric, and here was a mere human messing up the greatest thing Fate had created._

_And so when the human smiled, turned away, and picked up thread she had unweaved from the fabric; Fate had unraveled all of time up until that thread, and then carefully picked up new thread and weaved a new fabric._  
_Because everything that is fated to happen for a reason; and when that fated thing does not happen, the rest of the universe is in peril. It is a cause and effect. It is the ultimate law of the universe. And now, without that thread the human has stole, the human would reap what she had sown._

XxXx

Sakura blinked the rain away from her eyes blearily as Itachi lowered her to the ground carefully. When he was satisfied she wouldn't collapse at his feet he let his hands fall from her collar. It was nice to see he had faith she could stand even though she didn't.

Her lungs felt like fire and her legs were shaking even as she leaned heavily on the one that wasn't injured. She attempted to control the shaking in her body but after a few seconds, she gave up the attempt and instead focused her attention on the Konoha Hunter Nins who all tensed waiting for the battle she knew was coming.

She needed to light that flare. The elder Uchiha seemed to have the same idea as he twisted his body grabbing her by the shoulders and throwing her far from the battle scene.

She landed with a painful thud even as the curses fell from her lips promising death and torture to the Akatsuki member. She raised her arms high and pulled the string at the bottom of the flare. There was a loud 'pop' and a sizzle as the flare went high into the sky.

Satisfied that Ame could see it, she dropped the flare turning her head as she felt the air around her shift. She acted on instinct, ducking under the arch of the poisoned blade as it passed over the air where her neck had been moments before. She rolled across the ground, shoving the scroll into her weapons pouch, replacing it with a kunai in her hand.

Her left knee hit the ground even as she pushed off with her right foot. The ANBU rushed at her ruthlessly, his blade disappearing with the force of the swing. She huffed, ducking underneath of his outstretched arms and around his legs so she twisted behind him. Her arm swung, intending to shove the kunai into his shoulder blades.

He realized what she was doing and ran forward. He jumped, his feet colliding with the trunk of the tree in front of him. Twisting his hips he turned so he was facing her and pushed off the trunk raising the blade high. Ignoring the painful throb as she added another kunai to her spare hand, she brought them both in front of her in an X, his blade being caught in the middle.

His feet barely hit the ground before he shoved into her again, forcing her backwards, her feet digging into the muddy ground. She was aware her arms were screaming in protest as she twisted, her foot coming up and colliding with the ANBU's side. He was pushed away, his feet sliding across ground.

When the two got back their momentum, he had descended on her again like a starving animal when it finally caught a prey it wasn't going to let escape. The two seemed to dance, him fast and precise, her sluggish and worn down. She cried out frustrated as he knocked her backwards into a tree. White lights burst across her vision and she stumbled, her injured calf crying out in agony. He found his opening and took it.

Sakura felt pain explode across her shoulder. She cried out, swinging her uninjured arms wildly forcing the ANBU backwards away from her non-calculated strikes. She felt a tug on her shoulder as the poisoned blade was retched from her body.

She stumbled forward, already the poison spreading across her body. Blood splashed the ground, but it was washed away by the rain even before it had marred the earth. She looked up, blearily aware of the ANBU taking off his mask.

"I'm sorry to have to do this Sakura," he said almost endearing and regretful. She squinted her eyes up at the face, registering dark eyes and hair. He raised the blade high above his body and brought it down. There was a clash of metal and Sakura's vision was covered by black with red clouds.

She tilted her head upwards. She saw a flash of silver before her world tilted, her body collapsing against the muddy ground. Her vision swam and she was vaguely aware the sounds of battle being forced away from her.

She was lifted from the ground, a voice above her shouting orders she couldn't distinguish. A hand started slapping her face attempting to get her to focus. Her body sagged as her eyes closed, too heavy to keep them open. She saw a flash of blue.

Why, hello there Kisame...

Her body sagged and she was thrust forward into a darkness.

XxXx

She had been staring at a ceiling even before she became aware of this fact. Her eyes blinked, slowly her mind coming to the realization that she was awake. Slowly she became aware of itchy cloth laid across her body. A slow steady beep sounded off to her left. Funny... her alarm clock was louder than that.

A door opened to her side and the sound of curtains being drawn back. Sakura turned her eyes to the sound finding a amber eyed, blue haired girl.

"Haruno-san," she asked. Her vision swam.

"Haru- Sakura? Can you hear me," the girl asked again, "Sakura? Squeeze my fingers if you can hear me."

Squeeze...?

Feeling fatigue press against her eyelids she fought for a moment. The voice was becoming distant to her left. She dropped back into the darkness.

_All I have to do is squeeze her fingers, right?_

_Why can't I feel my body?_

XxXx

_She was covered in blood her hands pushed deep into the man's chest. His wet coughs impressed her. Somehow she expected him to be dead long before now. His eyes searched her face, as she turned, cracking a small reassuring smile that was marred by the lines of exhaustion under her eyes._

_She looked back at his chest, heaving a sigh of relief as her minty green chakra managed to close one of the final arteries that were spilling blood across the ground. She shifted her hands, working to inflate the collapsed lung, forcing the blood out of his organ. He groaned, coughing up the blood, eyes rolling into the back of his head for a single moment._

_She pushed chakra into his body causing him to twitch, his eyes returning to normal. She snarled, "Don't you fucking die on me, Lee. Don't you fucking dare."_

_He looked back at her, his eyes hazy as if he couldn't quiet understand what was going on and who she was._

_Sakura gritted her teeth, focusing on fixing the mangled organs. Her eyes slid upwards a fraction of a second. And she saw he had not wavered. He stood, staring down at her watching her work, brown eyes unwavering beneath a mop of messy red hair._

_"Stop watching me," she hissed._

_He didn't spoke, but she could tell he had ignored her request and was still staring at her._

_They were all staring at her watching as slowly she knitted Lee's skin together. His breathing was labored and she looked back at him, "Lee, you're not out of the danger zone."_

_"I-If I can not survive this, I will walk around on my hands for five thousand miles," he said. She wisely resisted the urge to point out that if he didn't survive this he would be dead and thus incapable of walking around like he challenged._

_"I'll hold you to that, Lee," she whispered, letting her eyes stray to the two other Leaf Nin sprawled out unconscious on the ground. Hinata and Shikamaru were not as injured as Lee had been, but still she worried about the large gash on the Nara's head that still had not stopped bleeding even after an hour and a half._

_Hinata had already been cared for, her face pale from blood loss. She had taken the most damage from the attack and so Sakura had attended to her first. Then Lee. And then she would check Shikamaru._

_And then..._

_"Stop watching me," Sakura snarled, feeling the eyes on her face, on her hands, on her neck, on her body._

_She was ignored. Why wasn't she surprised?_

_Lee blinked tiredly at her as she finished him up. She reached into her pack, grabbing healing salve and applying it generously all over the new skin. He whimpered, but otherwise gave no indication that he was in pain. Sakura couldn't help but admire his strength._

_Once he was wrapped up she moved over towards Shikamaru. A quick scan indicated that he was fine just unconscious. He should wake up soon, with a headache, but otherwise okay. She stitched up the gash quickly and wrapped his head. She stood, before hesitating and leaving a bottle of medication and pain pills near the Konoha nin's head._

_She steadied herself, before defiantly lifting her head to stare at the man she had killed years ago: Akasuna no Sasori. He hummed low in the back of his throat as she turned her head, aware the other members of Akatsuki were getting ready._

_"We withheld our end of the bargain, will you withhold yours," Itachi Uchiha asked stretching out his hand towards her._

_"Sa-Sakura-chan, I must protest," Lee cried out weakly, struggling to sit up. The rosette turned to him, "Don't move, you'll further injure yourself."_

_She turned back to the Akatsuki members. She pushed chakra into her fists as a reaction and she could see the members flanking around her tense waiting for a fight. Grinding her teeth together in anger she relaxed all her muscles and turned to Lee, "Tell Tsunade-shishou I said good-bye."_

_And she turned and took Itachi's hand into her own ignoring Lee as he screamed out her name._

_"SAKURA-CHAN!"_

XxXx

Green eyes snapped opened with a gasp bursting through chapped lips. The feeling of dreaming began to pool away from her subconscious, allowing her conscious to take a hold. She was still for several more seconds before she let out a breath that she hadn't known she had been holding.

A dream. It had been a dream...

Her eyes fluttered closed, as she pulled her hand to her face. She winced in the movement, pain racing across her arm and into her neck. Her eyes opened and shifted so she could trail the line of white bandages up her arm. Sighing she let her hand fall back onto the bed and turned her head to observe the room she was in.

She could tell she was in a hospital, the IV in her arm a dead giveaway before she had taken in the rest of her surroundings. It was plain, lacking in the usual decorum that Konoha's hospital normally had. The walls were a pale yellow, almost white. A counter ran the length of the room parallel to the bed. A sink and various other medical supplies were placed neatly on the counter. Two cupboards were above the counter, nearest to her head and she knew if she opened them up, she would find medical supplies in there too.

She turned her head, the rest of the room blocked by a eggshell white curtain. Knowing if she tilted her head upwards she was see machines hanging from the walls that were constantly measuring and calculating her body's stats. Taking in to account the heart monitor attached to her chest, a blood pressure gauge wrapped around her arm and hooked up to a machine that took her blood pressure ever half an hour mechanically; she knew she was in the ICU ward of whatever hospital she was in.

Sakura reached her arm behind her and pulled the button that would call in a doctor or a nurse. She sat up slightly wincing in the pain. She had just managed to make herself comfortable when the curtains slid back to reveal the same blue haired amber eyed girl from earlier.

"Haruno-san," she greeted.

"K-Konan," Sakura greeted, wincing as her voice rubbed her throat raw, "How long have I been out?"

"About two weeks," The other girl answered. Green eyes widened for a moment, before she sighed and leaned back against the pillows. Well that had been better than she had expected, but it was still disgruntling to know she had lost two weeks of her life.

Sakura brought her hand up to her neck and began to massage the muscles, "Wasn't that blade that cut me poisoned?"

"Sasori-san is knowledgeable in poisons. He was able to administer the antidote quick enough to stop you from dying, but it was fast acting and your body has been expelling the poison for two weeks now," She hesitate, "You've been in and out of it for two weeks now. Do you remember anything?"

Sakura looked thoughtful for a moment, "I remember once. You kept telling me to squeeze your fingers."

Konan dipped her head, "Anything else?"

"Sorry, no. I've been awake more than that time," the pink haired girl asked.

"Several times. You've even answered questions asked to you. Though, it mostly you babbled about stuff none of us were able to understand. You mentioned something about a-," she hesitate slightly, before blushing, "A Love Hotel at least a couple of dozen times."

Sakura felt heat flood across her face, "Ah, yeah... Wait- what do you mean 'us'? Who else was in the room?"

"Ah well... the Akatsuki," Konan said. Sakura groaned, "Fantastic. I didn't say anything else weird did I?"

"Well...," Konan stopped, seeing the look on Sakura's face. She turned her head when she heard the door open on the other side of the room and smiled, "Look whose finally awake."

Konan stepped back and drew the curtains to the side.

Sakura couldn't help the grin that split across her face as one by one the Akatsuki filed into the room.

XxXx

_She hated them. They had come suddenly and before she could register what was happening, before it had clicked, before the adrenaline had even flooded her system; they had taken Shikamaru, Hinata, and Lee down._

_A kunai had sliced through Lee. He had enough time to widen his eyes an "oh" forming against his lips, before he had collapsed, blood pooling out of his open chest._

_Hinata's chest exploded with the force of a small bomb, sending her flying back. She was out before she even hit the ground, before the scream had properly formed in her throat._

_Shikamaru was lifted high into the air by an invisible force. He had cried out before he was slammed down hard into the ground with enough force to make a crater in the ground. His head banged against the ground knocking him out._

_And Sakura found herself alone her comrades taken out in less than a minute by an enemy she couldn't see. The air stilled as her breath hitched, torn between fighting and wanting to run to her comrades and begin to heal them. She could do it. She needed to get to Hinata first, the bomb had left a gaping wound. Lee would be next, the kunai stopped the worst of the damage that would be apparent when she took the kunai out. Shikamaru would be next; hopefully their would be no brain damage, but maybe she could be quick enough to reverse it-_

_Her mind had frozen to a stop when she heard the sounds of clothing rustling and seven shadows emerged from the trees._

_The figure that emerged in front of her made her mouth open slightly and she tried to make sense of the fact that a man was standing in front of her like she hadn't KILLED HIM SEVERAL YEARS AGO!_

_"This isn't real," she breathed, forcing her chakra to dispel the genjutsu, "I killed you. I watched you die."_

_Why wasn't the genjutsu breaking?_

_"I'm dreaming. This is a nightmare, and soon I'll be waking up and one of the nurses will be yelling at me because I'm sleeping in the hospital and I haven't done any paperwork in weeks," She mumbled to herself._

_A chuckle from behind her caused her to spin around so fast she felt something pop in her neck. Eyes narrowing against the image of the man standing before her now, she turned her head and took in the other five people that were standing around her like they hadn't been killed._

_"Haruno-san," the person said, dipping his head._

_"Uchiha," she spat Itachi's name, "What the **fuck** are all of you doing alive?"_

_He smiled at her._

_"Shouldn't you be attending to your comrades, uhn," A familiar blonde asked, waving his hands towards the dying Konoha nin. Sakura's expression turned murderous, "What? You nearly kill them just to watch me fix them again? What kind of sick fucking game is this?"_

_"Of course not," Sasori said, approaching her, "You either get to heal them and then come with us; or you can try and fight us but wind up like them and then you can all die."_

_They had caught her and she had known it. Even before he had finished speaking she knew she would trade her life to them in exchange for her friends life. And she knew they knew she would do that. That's why they had placed her in this impossible predicament._

_And as she had taken her first steps towards Hinata she could have sworn she saw a positively feral grin ripple across his face._

_She hated them._

__XxXx

Hope you enjoyed that.

Just to explain: The parts of the story in italics is in fact, the past. So the story in the italics will eventually catch up to the rest of the story and explain some questions that may pop up, whereas the rest of the story will progress regularly.

Sorry for any mistakes I've made in the story.

Please write a review so I can improve any mistakes or any such thing.


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